Hi, I know that there is a huge difference between NY and London about paid holidays but was reading the thread about London Ib bonuses and a lot of people were posting pretty good hours for an Ib analyst role. So are London IB hours generally better than the NY ones?
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At least 4 weeks statutory holidays (and that you're generally encouraged to take it) makes a hell lot of a difference to my general sanity and to stay off adderall
Third year IBD analyst in London here, hours vary a lot depending on project but if I was to try average it out:
Monday to Thursday: 9am - 10.30pm (although ranges from 9pm to 3am depending on how busy) Friday: 9am - 7pm (my team has a good culture we try all leave by 7pm for beers on Fridays) Weekends: depends how busy we are, to put it in perspective I’ve worked the past 4 weekends in a row, but before that I didn’t work a weekend for 6 weeks in a row Holiday: we get 4 weeks holiday per year but unless you’re loved by your seniors, you normally have to cancel holiday a few days before you’re due to leave I.e in 2019 I only took 1 week of holiday during the entire year as I had to cancel every other time a few days before due to projects
Hours were much worse during my first year but this is my experience as a senior analyst
is this BB M&A ?
Do you have dealflow? Those hours seem to be too light? What kind of bank is it?
This reeks of a bank with no deal flow
IB hours aren't "easy" anywhere. But if banks started expecting juniors to work NYC hours they should raise pay to NYC levels. Before the pound dropped in 09 and after Brexit, London IB had chiller hours and similiar to NYC pay, but that isn't coming back anytime soon.
Exactly... If they expected to own 2 years of an analyst's life, they need to up the pay and the seniors need to be more supportive re exits / buyside recruitments
As a junior analyst in my London IB Group it's roughly:
Mon-Thurs: 09:30 - 01:00
Friday: 10:00 - 22:00
w/e: c. 12 - 20 hours averaged across both days
You're pulling 90 hour weeks consistently or just during rush times? What's your type of firm?
Yeah consistently 90 hours on average, ranges from 80 - 100. American BB
ruff
1st year analyst at American BB in London here. Can confirm the above although can get significantly worse depending on client demands.
What are the best groups in London? like top 10?
Don't fool yourself. I interned for a BB in London and everyone told me the IB hours were going to be "wayyyy easier" than NYC. This was literally completely wrong. The hours were just as bad in London - if not worse. Many of the Analysts and Associates I spoke to were up until 3-4 am a few times a week and no one was taking more than 2 weeks of vacation. Maybe it was just my team but IB in London is definitely not easy.
Hard to give an average
AN1
Slow week: 10an - 9pm weekdays with 30% of it spent waiting around, still reconnect at midnight to reply to a couple emails, almost no WE work (just emails)
Week where something blows up: 9am - 1/4am weekdays + 10-30h+ WE work
Average maybe 9am-0am but in reality most of the time it’s either a slow week or a hardcore week (either sth blows up or it doesn’t, at the same time I’m not pushing hours unnecessarily tbh)
So in terms of hours “at the desk” maybe 60 to 110h is a good range, with effective work hours being less
what about for associates?
I think generally it should get better as you’re not doing the grunt work past midnight, however in my firm associates have so much on their plate right now (because everybody is staffed on multiple deals) that they work very long hours
Any insights on EBs in London ?
Any insights on EBs in London ?
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